LOOPNORTH.COM: Is your condo board or HOA run by Captain Bligh?
By Don DeBat
One of the myths of condo and HOA shared-community ownership is the so-called “carefree living.” There are no yards to maintain, grass to cut, snow to shovel, windows to wash, decks to stain, or roofs to repair. However, the condo lifestyle isn’t always pretty.
5-Oct-15 – Imagine you are British seaman Fletcher Christian serving under the lash of the evil Captain William Bligh while on a 1789 voyage to Tahiti in the South Pacific.
Historians and Mutiny on the Bounty buffs would view Captain Bligh as an over-bearing monster and Christian as a tragic victim.
Fast forward to 2015, when some condominium and homeowners association (HOA) residents say they feel as if Captain Bligh is reigning over their community association – imposing hefty fines for rule violations, then taking them to court to collect, and possibly foreclosing if they don’t pay up.
A new national survey by the Coalition for Community Housing Policy in the Public Interest (CHPPI) found that 77 percent of all respondents said they have been involved in a significant dispute with a condo or HOA.
“The president ran the HOA like Captain Bligh,” said an owner in an HOA community in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. “He imposed fines, doubled them, and then took me to court. He ran out my tenant prior to Christmas because he didn’t like him. It took four months to find a new renter and my house was near foreclosure.” Read more: